Author: spnfans

Author/Editor of 'There'll Be Peace When You Are Done: Actors and Fans Celebrate the Legacy of Supernatural', 'Family Don't End With Blood', 'Fangasm Supernatural Fangirls' and many others

Jared and Jensen and Lots of Smiles at ChiCon

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Happy Halloween, SPNFamily! Here are some treats to celebrate…

It was a real one-two Supernatural knockout punch to come off the high of Chicon and then have an episode like ‘Baby’. I barely survived all the good feelings! Before the next con and its undoubtedly epic happenings takes place (I’m counting on you guys to keep me up to date since I won’t be there at Denvercon!), I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from Chicon, and a few of my favorite moments too.

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This will be post no. 1 – the J2 version. Frankly, I could watch Jared and Jensen banter and tease each other and crack each other up until the cows come home. Somehow, after more than ten years of working together and spending most weekends together at conventions (or now at home in Austin), they clearly still enjoy each other’s company as much as ever.

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Bringing Us All Home: Supernatural’s Baby

Bringing Us All Home: Supernatural’s Baby

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Tweet, @zabrinamakeup
Tweet, @zabrinamakeup

It’s the day after the day after as I write this, and I’m still basking in the afterglow of this week’s Supernatural episode. In fact, all of fandom and even some of the entertainment media is basking in the afterglow. It feels, as someone on my twitter timeline said, like the old days. When I’d go online after an episode of Supernatural aired and everyone would be squeeful, unanimous in their gleeful appreciation of the Best. Show. Ever.

It was like that Wednesday night, as post after post after post went on and on about “Baby”. I tweeted that my episode review would be really short this week: Perfection.

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Meet and Greet Tidbits from Chicon – Jensen Ackles on Directing SPN!

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Chicon, as everyone there kept saying this past weekend, is where it all started. It was the site of the very first Creation Supernatural convention, way back in 2007. Kathy and I took turns stalking the website, sometimes to the detriment of things like jobs and carpooling children, waiting for tickets to go on sale. When they did, I was lucky enough to snap some up – I think we’re still sitting in those same seats today. And up on stage, many of the same actors we met that day for the first time were onstage once again.

There are not one but two chapters of ‘Fangasm’ that take place at Chicon, so let’s just say it’s a special con for Kathy and me. This year it seemed to hit all of us that it’s been a long time we’ve been coming to the Windy City to celebrate our love of Supernatural, with both actors and fans feeling a bit emotional about it. Which made for fabulous panels, and a great meet and greet with Jensen.

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(My good friend Laurena, who rescued me at Chicon two years ago when I got stranded there without a hotel in the middle of an East coast hurricane, did the Jared meet and greet, so look for that write up soon over on the Winchester Family Business site). Laurena and I spent Sunday night gushing to each other about our respective meet and greet experiences over some delicious food and drink in the Red Bar, where they were serving Crowley themed drinks all weekend. (This must be a tradition: At the first Chicon all the hotel bars were serving purple nurples.)

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Action Ackles Returns with The Bad Seed

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WB/The CW
WB/The CW

Last week’s episode was eagerly anticipated in large part due to the fact that once again Jensen Ackles was directing; just like the cast and crew rally around one of their own, the fandom rallies around too, everyone rooting for Jensen to succeed. It wasn’t one of my favorite episodes on first viewing, but now that I’ve rewatched it (and listened to Jensen’s directing insights about it at Chicon, which will be up here soon in my meet and greet report), I like it more. I definitely think he can count it as a directing success. There was a lot of talking and not as much action as usual, but he made the most of what action there was, and for the most part, the exposition wasn’t too heavy handed. And hey, at least the boys are all talking to each other!

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Jim Beaver Talks Supernatural, Crimson Peaks – and New Show Internity!

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Photo Lizz Sisson
Photo Lizz Sisson

Wednesday night was exciting for more reasons than one – a) a brand new Supernatural episode directed by ActionAckles himself, and b) I had a chance to chat with one of my favorite people, Jim Beaver!

Jim (along with fellow Supernatural alum Julie McNiven and a bunch of other great people) are involved with a new show, Internity, which is also relevant to your interests if you’re a fan – it not only has a great cast, it’s totally fandom positive. The main character is an intern at a hospital, and he’s also a fanboy. In each episode, his fandom comes alive in a series of imagined interactions, which help him solve the problem of the week. We have always said that fandom is a good thing, and Internity clearly agrees!

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Toronto Con 2015 With the Supernatural Family

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The Toronto Creation con is always a little bit more emotional than most, because everyone remembers that’s where Rob Benedict had the stroke that almost killed him. That was two years ago, and Rob is fine – as Richard says, better than ever and healthy as a horse! – but he almost wasn’t. The fact that it was his Supernatural family who saved his life is emblematic of the feeling many fans have that the show has saved their lives too – maybe not quite as literally (though maybe every bit as literally), but nevertheless Supernatural has changed many of us. Toronto con is about celebrating Rob’s life, and about celebrating the fact that we’re all SPN Family. Maybe that’s why all the guests were bursting with enthusiasm at this year’s Torcon, and why the Saturday Night Special erupted in an emotional rushing of the stage by the last few numbers.

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Julie McNiven On New Fandom-Flavored Show Internity – and the SPNFamily

Julie McNiven On New Fandom-Flavored Show Internity – and the SPNFamily

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I had the pleasure of chatting with Supernatural’s angel Anna, Julie McNiven, last week about her new project (Internity) which turns out to be entirely relevant – to both Supernatural and fandom! Although we’ve seen Julie at several conventions, we’d never had a chance to interview her – plus, Julie is one of the kickass women of Supernatural on board for the SPN Ladies Con (@LadiesOfSPN), so it was an extra special treat to talk with her.

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Supernatural Gets Creepy – 11.02 Form and Void

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Well, that was a wild ride! Supernatural’s ‘Form and Void’ (not the catchiest title – I miss Kripke’s provocative episode names) was nevertheless one of those episodes that seemed to fly by, keeping me on the edge of my seat and biting my nails when it wasn’t making me squee over how badass it looked – and sounded. The music was, as one fan put it, ‘jacked up’ – it wasn’t SPN’s usual fare, but it really worked to keep the pace quick throughout.

In fact, instead of dragging, there was so much going on that I felt like my head was spinning at times. And I’m not entirely sure I’m going to remember everything that happened after a single watch, but here are the things that struck me.

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Jared and Jensen TorCon Meet and Greets – Sam and Dean In This Together

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Toronto Con is always an emotional convention, and this year was no exception. It was also Canadian Thanksgiving, which meant I had some wonderful nights out with Canadian fangirl friends over good wine and delicious turkey dinner. More on the convention soon, but for now, some meet and greet excerpts! I was lucky enough to go to both Jared and Jensen’s meet and greets, and there were some great questions at both. Here are a couple of tidbits from Jensen’s:

Random question first: he likes Penny Dreadful, and is mock jealous of Josh Hartnett for playing such a cool character.

Most of the rest of the meet and greet was all about Supernatural, which made me a happy meet and greet attendee indeed. The first question was about the similarities between Season 11 and Season 1, seeing as the new season is a bit of a throwback and getting back to the basics of the first season. How have the brothers changed?

Jensen: Has everyone seen the premiere?

One fan: Um, no.

Jensen (gesturing toward the door in mock fury) Get out!

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My Show is Back! Supernatural 11.01 Out Of The Darkness

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WB/The CW
WB/The CW

There is always so much anticipation leading up to the Supernatural season premiere, that it’s hard to believe anything could actually live up to it. For weeks, fans have been posting countdowns, fanfiction that picks up where S10 left off and imagines where the Winchesters, Cas and Crowley will go from there, fanvids, fanart, and graphics all in an attempt to get through the long Hellatus without going insane from Supernatural deprivation.

When the big night is finally here, the excitement is palpable all over social media. I might have let my grad students go home a bit early last night. Shhhh…

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